Australian federal election, 1993

Australian federal election, 1993
All 147 seats in the House of Representatives ; 74 seats were needed for a majority in the House ; 40 (of the 76) seats in the Senate
Prime Minister before election; Paul Keating ; Labor	Subsequent Prime Minister; Paul Keating ; Labor

Last updated March 12, 2019

The 1993 Australian federal election was held to determine the members of the 37th Parliament of Australia. It was held on 13 March 1993. All 147 seats of the House of Representatives and 40 seats of the 76-seat Senate were up for election. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party government led by Prime Minister Paul Keating was re-elected to a fifth term, defeating the centre-right Liberal/National Coalition led by Opposition Leader John Hewson of the Liberal Party, and coalition partner Tim Fischer of the National Party.

The term of Australian parliaments is determined by the opening and dissolution of the House of Representatives. The Senate is not normally dissolved at all, except at a double dissolution, when the entire parliament is dissolved.

The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.

The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a total of 76 Senators: 12 are elected from each of the six states regardless of population and 2 from each of the two autonomous internal territories. Senators are popularly elected under the single transferable vote system of proportional representation.

Background

The Gallagher Index result: 8.46 1993 Election Australia Gallagher Index.png — The Gallagher Index result: 8.46

This was the first election after the full totality of the late 80s/early 90s recession. The opposition Liberal Party was led by John Hewson, a Professor of Economics who succeeded Liberal leader Andrew Peacock in 1990. In November 1991 the opposition launched the 650-page Fightback! policy document − a radical collection of "dry", economic liberal measures including the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST), various changes to Medicare including the abolition of bulk billing for non-concession holders, the introduction of a nine-month limit on unemployment benefits, various changes to industrial relations including the abolition of awards, a $13 billion personal income tax cut directed at middle and upper income earners, $10 billion in government spending cuts, the abolition of state payroll taxes and the privatisation of a large number of government owned enterprises − representing the start of a very different future direction to the keynesian economic conservatism practiced by previous Liberal/National Coalition governments. The 15 percent GST was the centerpiece of the policy document. Through 1992, Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating mounted a campaign against the Fightback package, and particularly against the GST, which he described as an attack on the working class in that it shifted the tax burden from direct taxation of the wealthy to indirect taxation as a broad-based consumption tax. Pressure group activity and public opinion was relentless, which led Hewson to exempt food from the proposed GST − leading to questions surrounding the complexity of what food was and wasn't to be exempt from the GST. Hewson's difficulty in explaining this to the electorate was exemplified in the infamous birthday cake interview, considered by some as a turning point in the election campaign. Keating won a record fifth consecutive Labor term and a record 13 years in government at the 1993 election, a level of political success not previously seen by federal Labor. A number of the proposals were later adopted in to law in some form, to a small extent during the Keating Labor government, and to a larger extent during the Howard Liberal government (most famously the GST), while unemployment benefits and bulk billing were re-targeted for a time by the Abbott Liberal government.

The Liberal Party of Australia is a major centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP). It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Australia Party (UAP).

John Robert Hewson AM is a former Australian politician who served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1990 to 1994. He led the Coalition to defeat at the 1993 federal election.

Andrew Sharp Peacock AC GCL is a former Australian politician and diplomat. He served twice as leader of the Liberal Party, leading the party to defeat at the 1984 and 1990 elections. He had earlier been a long-serving cabinet minister.

The election-eve Newspoll reported the Liberal/National Coalition on a 50.5 percent two-party-preferred vote.^[1]

Newspoll is an Australian opinion polling brand, published by The Australian and administered by Galaxy Research, which in December 2017 was acquired by international market research and data analytics group, YouGov. Newspoll has a long tradition of accuracy with regard to predicting Australian Federal Election results, and moved to a new methodology of online and automated telephone interviews in 2015. In the first major test of this methodology, Newspoll conducted by Galaxy Research was the most accurate national published poll at the 2016 Australian Federal Election.

In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, the Liberal/National Coalition is usually considered a single party, with Labor being the other major party. Typically the TPP is expressed as the percentages of votes attracted by each of the two major parties, e.g. "Coalition 45%, Labor 55%", where the values include both primary votes and preferences. The TPP is an indicator of how much swing has been attained/is required to change the result, taking into consideration preferences, which may have a significant effect on the result.

For the first time since the 1966 election, an incumbent government had increased their two-party preferred vote.

There was an unusual circumstance in the seat of Dickson. One of the candidates, an independent, died very shortly before the election, making it necessary to hold a supplementary election on 17 April. Following the return of the Labor Party to government, Keating announced the makeup of his new ministry to be sworn in on 24 March, but kept the portfolio of Attorney-General open for Michael Lavarch subject to him winning Dickson on 17 April. He won the seat, and was appointed to the ministry on 27 April.

The Division of Dickson is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland, Australia. The division was formed in 1992 and is named after Sir James Dickson, a leading advocate in Australian Federation, Premier of Queensland and Minister for Defence in the first Australian Ministry. It is located in the outer north-western suburbs of Brisbane, including Albany Creek, Kallangur and Strathpine. The 2006 redistribution added the Shire of Esk to and removed part of Kallangur from the district. It has historically been a marginal seat, changing hands between the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party.

The Second Keating Ministry (Labor) was the 60th ministry of the Government of Australia, and was led by Prime Minister Paul Keating. It succeeded the First Keating Ministry upon its swearing in by Governor-General Bill Hayden on 24 March 1993 after the 1993 election, and was replaced by the First Howard Ministry led by John Howard on 11 March 1996 following the Labor government's defeat at the 1996 election.

Michael Hugh Lavarch AO is an Australian lawyer, educator and former politician. He was the Attorney-General for Australia between 1993 and 1996, and since 2004 has been dean and professor of law at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), his alma mater.

Results

House of Representatives results

House of Reps (IRV) – 1993–36 – Turnout 95.75% (CV) — Informal 2.97%
Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor		4,751,390	44.92	+5.49	80	+2
	Liberal–National coalition		4,681,822	44.27	+0.81	65	–4
		Liberal	3,888,579	36.77	+2.01	49	–6
		National	758,036	7.17	–1.25	16	+2
		Country Liberal	35,207	0.33	+0.05	0	0
	Democrats		397,060	3.75	–7.51	0	0
	Greens*		193,402	1.83	+0.46	0	0
	Natural Law		78,577	0.74	+0.74	0	0
	Confederate Action		60,213	0.57	+0.57	0	0
	Call to Australia		49,467	0.47	–0.50	0	0
	Independent EFF		9,954	0.09	+0.09	0	0
	Rex Connor Labor		7,083	0.07	–0.01	0	0
	Citizens Electoral Council		4,198	0.04	+0.04	0	0
	Indigenous Peoples		4,069	0.04	+0.04	0	0
	Against Further Immigration		3,587	0.03	+0.03	0	0
	Grey Power		1,759	0.02	–0.19	0	0
	Abolish Self Government		1,663	0.02	+0.02	0	0
	Independents		332,535	3.14	+0.38	2	+1
	Total		10,576,779			147	–1
Two-party-preferred vote
	Labor		WIN	51.44	+1.54	80	+2
	Liberal–National coalition			48.56	–1.54	65	–4

Note: the federal Australian Greens were founded in 1992, but not all state and territory organisations immediately affiliated to the new federal party. The Greens total includes: Greens New South Wales (46,752), Victorian Greens (3,317), Queensland Greens (58,502), Greens Western Australia (55,907), Greens South Australia (1,496), Tasmanian Greens (24,319), and ACT Green Democratic Alliance (3,109).
Independents: Ted Mack, Phil Cleary

The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a green political party in Australia.

Greens New South Wales Political party in New South Wales

The Greens New South Wales is the state Greens party in New South Wales and a member party of the Australian Greens.

The Queensland Greens is a Green party in the Australian state of Queensland, and a member of the federation of the Australian Greens. The Greens were first founded in Queensland as the Brisbane Green Party in late 1984 about a month after the Sydney Greens. The Brisbane Green Party contested the March 1985 Brisbane City Council elections with four ward candidates and Drew Hutton as mayoral candidate. Hutton received 4 per cent across the city and the ward candidates received approximately 7-10 per cent. Some time after the collapse of the Brisbane Greens, a Green Independent campaign stood a further range of candidates in the Queensland state election, 1989.

Popular Vote

Labor			44.92%
Liberal			37.10%
National			7.17%
Democrats			3.75%
Greens			1.86%
Independents			3.10%
Other			2.10%

Two Party Preferred Vote

Labor			51.44%
Coalition			48.56%

Parliament Seats

Labor			54.42%
Coalition			44.22%
Independents			1.36%

Senate results

Senate (STV GV) — 1993–96 – Turnout 96.22% (CV) — Informal 2.55%
		Votes	%	Swing	Seats Won	Seats Held	Change
Labor		4,643,871	43.50	+5.09	17	30	–2
Liberal–National coalition		4,595,148	43.05	+1.13	19	36	+2
	Liberal–National joint ticket	2,605,157	24.40	–0.07	6	N/A	N/A
	Liberal	1,664,204	15.59	+1.03	11	29	0
	National	290,382	2.72	+0.12	1	6	+2
	Country Liberal	35,405	0.33	+0.04	1	1	0
Democrats		566,944	5.31	–7.32	2	7	–1
Greens ^{[lower-alpha 1]}		314,845	2.95	+0.85	1	2	+1
Call to Australia		108,938	1.02	–0.35	0	0	0
Shooters		63,691	0.60	+0.60	0	0	0
Confederate Action		59,875	0.56	+0.56	0	0	0
Against Further Immigration		46,464	0.44	+0.24	0	0	0
Democratic Labor		38,317	0.36	+0.21	0	0	0
Natural Law		38,054	0.36	+0.36	0	0	0
Pensioner and CIR		22,209	0.21	+0.03	0	0	0
Grey Power		17,595	0.16	–0.11	0	0	0
Republican		15,187	0.14	+0.14	0	0	0
Indigenous Peoples		6,422	0.06	+0.06	0	0	0
Independent EFF		6,031	0.06	–0.58	0	0	0
Citizens Electoral Council		5,578	0.05	–0.02	0	0	0
Tasmania		2,815	0.03	+0.03	0	0	0
Abolish Self-Government		1,708	0.02	+0.02	0	0	0
Independent		184,804	1.73	+1.43	1	1	0
Total		10,674,805			40	76

Notes

↑ Several state Green parties had not yet affiliated to the national Australian Greens party (founded in 1992). This total includes 214,117 for the federal Australian Greens, 53,757 votes for the Greens Western Australia, and 46,971 votes for the Green Alliance (in New South Wales).

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1993				Swing	Post-1993
Seat	Party		Member	Margin	Swing	Margin	Member	Party
Adelaide, SA		Labor	Bob Catley	3.7	3.0	1.3	Trish Worth	Liberal
Bass, Tas		Liberal	Warwick Smith	4.3	4.5	0.0	Silvia Smith	Labor
Corinella, Vic		Liberal	Russell Broadbent	0.7	4.4	3.7	Alan Griffin	Labor
Cowan, WA		Labor	Carolyn Jakobsen	0.9	1.8	0.9	Richard Evans	Liberal
Dunkley, Vic		Liberal	Frank Ford	1.2	1.6	0.6	Bob Chynoweth	Labor
Franklin, Tas		Liberal	Bruce Goodluck	2.1	9.5	7.4	Harry Quick	Labor
Gilmore, NSW		National	John Sharp	4.4	1.1	0.5	Peter Knott	Labor
Grey, SA		Labor	Lloyd O'Neil	6.5	4.3	2.1	Barry Wakelin	Liberal
Hindmarsh, SA		Labor	John Scott	5.3	2.8	1.6	Christine Gallus	Liberal
Hinkler, Qld		Labor	Brian Courtice	4.0	4.2	0.2	Paul Neville	National
Kennedy, Qld		Labor	Rob Hulls	1.4	4.8	2.6	Bob Katter	National
Lowe, NSW		Liberal	Bob Woods	0.6	4.5	5.0	Mary Easson	Labor
Lyons, Tas		Liberal	Max Burr	2.1	5.6	3.8	Dick Adams	Labor
Macquarie, NSW		Liberal	Alasdair Webster	3.6	2.2	0.1	Maggie Deahm	Labor
McEwen, Vic		Liberal	Fran Bailey	3.2	3.9	0.7	Peter Cleeland	Labor
McMillan, Vic		Liberal	John Riggall	4.4	4.8	0.4	Barry Cunningham	Labor
Paterson, NSW		Liberal	notional – new seat	0.1	3.4	3.1	Bob Horne	Labor
Stirling, WA		Labor	Ron Edwards	0.1	1.7	1.5	Eoin Cameron	Liberal

Members in italics did not contest their seat at this election

Notes

↑ "Newspoll archive since 1987". Polling.newspoll.com.au.tmp.anchor.net.au. Retrieved 2016-07-30.

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References

University of WA election results in Australia since 1890
AEC 2PP vote
AustralianPolitics.com election details

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[2] Several state Green parties had not yet affiliated to the national Australian Greens party (founded in 1992). This total includes 214,117 for the federal Australian Greens, 53,757 votes for the Greens Western Australia, and 46,971 votes for the Green Alliance (in New South Wales).

[1] "Newspoll archive since 1987". Polling.newspoll.com.au.tmp.anchor.net.au. Retrieved 2016-07-30.

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